motivational interviewing frey herman strategies for...

Motivational Interviewing

in SchoolsStrategies for Engaging Parents, Teachers, and Students

Keith C. Herman

Wendy M. Reinke

Andy J. Frey

Stephanie A. Shepard9 780826 130723

ISBN 978-0-8261-3072-3

11 W. 42nd StreetNew York, NY 10036-8002 www.springerpub.com

Motivational Interviewing in Schools Strategies for Engaging Parents,

Teachers, and Students

Herman

Frey Reinke Shepard

Motivational interview

ing in SchoolS

Keith C. Herman, PhD, Wendy M. Reinke, PhD, Andy J. Frey, PhD, Stephanie A. Shepard, PhD

“The authors of this book have made a very important contribution in producing a book that literally pro-vides a roadmap for how to realize MI’s potential in school and family contexts. . . .The content coverage of the book’s chapters and its strong focus on the development of tools, strategies, and detailed, relevant examples of MI implementation in schools and also with families are, in my view, truly exemplary. . . .I recommend it unconditionally as an invaluable resource for today’s related services professional.”

Hill Walker, PhD, University of Oregon

This is the first book on applying motivational interviewing (MI)—a powerful, evidence-based technique for facilitating behavior change—throughout the school environment to help psychologists, counselors, and other

school-based professionals improve the effectiveness of their practice.

Based on encouraging research on the value of MI in K–12 settings, this practical book explains the basic ele-ments of MI theory and demonstrates, step by step, how the four-stage process of engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning can be used with the families of students who need psychological or counseling services, teachers who need consultation and support to improve classroom management, and the students themselves. The book discusses barriers to readiness to change and describes how to foster engagement and compliance with school services to increase the likelihood that positive change will occur. It also describes how MI can be used to increase the effectiveness of interprofessional teams in school settings, along with ways in which MI can be integrated into and build support for already established programs. Richly illustrated with examples of using MI as a strategy for promoting everyday conversations about change—the nucleus of MI practice—the book also includes case studies and sample handouts for mental health professionals, students, family members, and teachers.

Key Features:

• Demonstrates how to apply MI to the K–12 environment to help school professionals improve effectiveness

• Explains the four-stage process of engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning• Shows how MI can be used with children, their families, and teachers to facilitate change• Describes how MI can be integrated into other established programs• Includes plentiful case studies and examples of MI as a strategy for promoting everyday conversations

about change

© Springer Publishing Company, LLC

Motivational Interviewing in Schools

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Keith C. Herman, PhD, is a professor in counseling psychology at the University of Missouri and codirects the Missouri Prevention Center. He is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). Prior to his faculty appointment he worked as a school psychologist in an Oregon school district. He presents nationally and has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. He serves on the edi-torial boards of School Psychology Quarterly and Journal of Counseling Psychology and is coauthor of two professional books: Academic and Behavior Supports for At-Risk Students: Tier 2 Intervention (2012) and Motivational Interviewing for Effective Classroom Management: The Classroom Check-Up (2011). Much of his research and applied work focuses on using motivational interviewing (MI) with teachers and families to promote effective environ-ments for youth. He is a coinvestigator with Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and Early Intervention, where his primary role has been to develop MI-based consultation strategies for school professionals working with teachers, parents, and students; train these school professionals to deliver these methods with high fi delity; and evaluate the impact of the use of these methods on teacher, parent, and student outcomes.

Wendy M. Reinke, PhD, is an associate professor in school psychology at the University of Missouri and codirector of the Missouri Prevention Center. She has worked in a vari-ety of school consultation settings, including as a school psychologist in an elementary school and as a behavior consultant in the Baltimore City School District. She developed the Classroom Check-Up, an assessment-based classwide teacher consultation model. Her research focuses on the prevention of disruptive behavior problems in children and increasing school-based implementation of evidence-based practices. She presents nationally, has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles, and has coauthored two books, Academic and Behavior Supports for At-Risk Students: Tier 2 Intervention (2012) and Motivational Interviewing for Effective Classroom Management: The Classroom Check-Up (2011). She is the principal investigator on a multimillion-dollar trial funded by the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences to evaluate the effi cacy of a teacher classroom manage-ment intervention. She is also a coinvestigator with the Center for Prevention and Early Invervention. She is charged with developing and evaluating MI methods for promot-ing school engagement.

Andy J. Frey, PhD, earned his MSW from the University of Michigan in 1994 and his PhD from the University of Denver in 2000. He is currently an associate professor at the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. Before joining the faculty at the University of Louisville, he was a school social worker and behavioral consultant in Douglas County Schools, Colorado. He is the author of over 30 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles and serves on the editorial board of Children and Schools. His pri-mary interest areas include positive behavior support, social and emotional competence in preschoolers, early intervention, and the provision of school social work services. He has a developmental grant from the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences to integrate MI consultation strategies with the First Step to Success program. As part of this project, his team has developed protocols for training school personnel to use MI with families and teachers and for monitoring implementation fi delity.

Stephanie A. Shepard, PhD, is an assistant professor with Brown University’s School of Medicine. She received a Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health to integrate the MI-based Family Check-Up and other engagement strategies with the well-established parenting intervention, the Incredible Years. She has authored over 30 book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed publications. She has trained a cadre of school professionals across the nation to use these methods to pro-mote parent and staff involvement and motivation.

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Motivational Interviewing in Schools

Strategies for Engaging Parents, Teachers, and Students

Keith C. Herman, PhD

Wendy M. Reinke, PhD

Andy J. Frey, PhD

Stephanie A. Shepard, PhD

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Herman, Keith C.

Motivational interviewing in schools : strategies for engaging parents, teachers, and students / Keith C.

Herman, Ph.D., University of Missouri, Wendy M. Reinke, Ph.D., University of Missouri, Andy Frey, University

of Louisville, Stephanie Shepard, Brown University.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8261-3072-3 (alk. paper)

1. Educational counseling. 2. Motivational interviewing. 3. Motivation in education. I. Reinke, Wendy M.

II. Frey, Andy. III. Shepard, Stephanie. IV. Title.

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Keith: To James and Marilyn Herman, for instilling in me a commitment to lifelong learning

Wendy: To Alex and Jenny Reinke, for encouraging me throughout my life to reach for the stars and beyond

Andy: To Shannon, my wife and best friend, with love and thanks for helping me achieve my personal and professional goals

Stephanie: To my son, Henry Richard Umaschi

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© Springer Publishing Company, LLCvii

Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Part I: Overview of Motivational Interviewing 11. Background and Rationale 3 The Good and Bad News 4 A Modern View of Motivation 5 What Is MI? 6 Check-Ups 7 Does It Work? 7 What Is the Purpose of This Book? 8 For Whom Is This Book Written? 9 A Caveat 10 MI Plus What? 10

2. Getting Your Foot in the Door: The Context of Motivation 13 A Model for Considering Contextual Barriers to Motivation 13 Motivational Barriers at School 14 Unifi ed Theory of Behavior Change 15 Providing a Context for Parent Engagement in School 19 Engaging Parents in Support Services at Schools 24 Role of Leadership in Engaging Parents 30 Parent-Involvement Activity 31

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viii contents

Providing a Context for Engaging Teachers and Students 31 Teacher- and Student-Involvement Activities 32 Summary 32 Handouts and Forms 33

3. Motivational Interviewing Principles and Strategies 39 Thinking Motivationally 40 Unifi ed Theory of Behavior Change 44 MI Spirit 44 Guiding 45 Fundamental Processes and Strategies of MI 46 Suggestions for Getting Started 65 Summary 69

Part II: Specifi c Applications of Motivational Interviewing in Schools 71

4. Motivational Interviewing With Parents 73 Rationale and Challenges 73 Engaging 74 Focusing 84 Evoking 86 Planning 95 Summary 98 Resources for Supporting Parent Behavior-Management Skills 99 Handouts and Forms 100

5. Motivational Interviewing With Teachers 105 Engaging 106 Focusing 116 Evoking 118 Planning: Goal Setting 126 The CCU 134 Summary 135 Resources to Support Teacher Development of Classroom-Management

Skills 135 Handouts and Forms 136

6. Motivational Interviewing With Students 139 Developmental Considerations 139 Engaging Strategies for Youth 142

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contents ix

Specifi c Examples of Focusing, Evoking, and Planning Strategies With Youth 144

Encouraging Adults to Interact With Youth in the MI Spirit 152 Summary 153 Resources: Sample Evidence-Based Interventions for Student

Emotional and Behavioral Problems 153 Handout 155

7. An Example of a Structured Motivational Intervention for Families, Students, and Schools: The Family Check-Up 157

Check-Ups: An Overview 158 School-Enhanced Family Check-Up 159 Interview and Assessments 161 Preparing for the Feedback Session 169 Sample Dialogue for Supporting the Action-Planning Process 187 Summary 189 Resources: Sample Brief Measures to Assess Family Functioning 189 Handouts and Forms 191

8. Motivational Interviewing With School-Based Problem-Solving Teams 201

Your Own Experiences on an Academic or Behavior Support Team 202 Building an Effective Team 203 Arranging and Leading School Meetings 210 Case Examples 215 Summary 226

Part III: Implementation and Dissemination 2279. Integrating Motivational Interviewing With Other Evidence-Based

Programs and Practices 229 Using MI to Support Teacher Implementation Practices 230 Using MI to Support Parent Engagement in Parenting Programs 231 Using MI to Bolster Engagement and Implementation in Multicomponent

Interventions 233 Principles for Integrating MI With Other Interventions or Practices 234 Summary 238 Handouts and Forms 239

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x contents

10. Learning Motivational Interviewing and Monitoring Implementation Quality 249

Learning MI 250 Monitoring MI Quality 252 School-Based MI Fidelity Measures 257 Self-Refl ection 258 Summary 260 Handouts and Forms 261

11. The Future of Motivational Interviewing in Schools 265 How Does MI Fit With Other School Initiatives? 265 Other Applications 266 Future Research 267 A New Dimension 268

Bibliography 271

Index 283

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© Springer Publishing Company, LLCxi

Preface

It is fun when life comes full circle. The story of how this book came to be is full of circles. The earliest beginnings of this book can be traced to Providence, Rhode Island, in the late 1990s. Keith Herman and Wendy Reinke were working on a set of research projects at Brown University, one of them involving the use of motivational interviewing (MI) to encourage teens to quit smoking cigarettes. Keith was a research therapist on the project and was trained to use MI by Jacki Hecht, an early member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. Like most people when they fi rst learn this method, Keith caught the MI bug immediately. Once you catch it and then really learn MI, it forever permeates everything you do and how you think about the world.

Fast forward a few years to a dinner conversation between Wendy and Keith at a convention in New Orleans. Wendy was now a graduate student at the University of Oregon, and she was working with Tom Dishion, who had devel-oped a family application of MI called the Family Check-Up. In her work as a school psychologist, Wendy sensed that there was a need for a similar type of approach for teachers. While Wendy and Keith were brainstorming over dinner and during walks throughout the city, the Classroom Check-Up (the CCU) was born. The CCU is now an empirically supported teacher consultation model based on MI.

As fate would have it, Stephanie Shepard was working with Tom Dishion at the University of Oregon around the same time as Wendy, but the two hadn’t met in Oregon. The year Wendy began her training with Tom, Stephanie departed for her internship at Boston University Consortium. She then com-pleted her fellowship at Brown University in the same lab Wendy had worked in many years before (noticing the circles yet?). Stephanie continued on in a faculty position at Brown and became an expert at integrating the Family Check-Up with family interventions, especially the well-established parenting program, the Incredible Years.

Fast forward a few years again, when Wendy and Keith were working as part of the Center for Prevention and Early Intervention (CPEI) at Johns Hopkins. The CPEI was in part intended to bring together scholars who were developing

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xii preface

integrated school-based interventions. They learned of Stephanie’s work on a career development award she received from the National Institute of Mental Health and invited her to a center meeting. During her visit, it became obvious how much the three of us had in common, and how we were all trying to tackle the same challenges of improving services in schools.

The fi nal member of our team, Andy Frey, came to us as a gift from Hill Walker. Wendy worked with Hill during her time at the University of Oregon, and they stayed in touch over the years. Hill, ever generous with his time and committed to supporting the next generation of scholars, contacted her out of the blue one day and said he had someone he wanted her to meet. Hill sensed that Wendy and Andy would hit it off, and he was right. Andy had been work-ing with Hill on a grant to improve parent engagement in the First Step to Success program. He encountered some challenges in teacher engagement to the intervention as well. Hill knew of Wendy’s work with the CCU and thought she would have some insights that Andy would fi nd helpful. As with Stephanie, it was clear that Andy had been working on some of the same challenges in pro-moting involvement with school-based services.

All four of us believed the MI approach fi lled an important gap in school-based intervention research and practice. Barely a week would pass without one of us hearing from someone requesting information about school-based MI and a manual for how to do it. While MI has now been around for over two decades, we are just beginning to understand its potential in school settings. Each of us had separately adapted the methods for specifi c application in our school con-sultation work ranging from Head Start to high school settings. We decided to write a book together to capitalize on the wide range of experiences each of us has had with MI. We wanted to create a highly accessible resource for school practitioners. Toward that end, the handouts for the book are available for download and use from the Springer Publishing Company website (www.springerpub.com/herman-ancillary).

As you read this book, we hope that you too experience the MI bug, the excitement that comes with realizing the simplicity and truth behind the tech-nique. There is something about it that resonates with people, a realization that the way we have been going about trying to infl uence people in the past may have been misguided, and a hope that this new way of being with people will make a difference. There is something empowering and exciting about this method that gives you concrete points of leverage to help people make impor-tant changes in their lives. Enjoy the journey. May yours be fi lled with gratifying circles!

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© Springer Publishing Company, LLCxiii

Acknowledgments

Wendy Reinke and Keith Herman are grateful to all the teachers, parents, and students who allowed us to pilot elements of the methods described here over the years; we are especially grateful to those who have participated in the stud-ies that formed the foundation for our work.

We also must acknowledge the amazing coaches and school-based consultants who have inspired us over the years. Jennifer Keperling and Sandy Hardee have been two exceptional coaches and long-time champions of the Classroom Check-Up (CCU). They each have inspired us to identify key quali-ties of effective coaches. In particular, Jenn has an unyielding belief in teach-ers and their ability to enact change plans. Her spirit of conveying this moves most teachers to action. Sandy displays such a spirit of comfort and ease in her interactions with teachers that nearly all are willing to trust and work with her as their guide, even on the most diffi cult topics. Lana Asuncion-Bates has emerged as an exemplary CCU coach as well and has made many thoughtful contributions to the model. Jennifer Cox, Kelly Dunn, Courtney Vaughan, and Dana Darney also have provided valuable services and insights based on their efforts at implementing the Family Check-Up and Coping Power programs in urban school settings. Dana and several doctoral students at the University of Missouri, including Lindsay Borden, Tia Shultz, and Nidhi Goel, provided motivational interviewing (MI)-related services to parents, students, and teach-ers and completed innovative dissertations on MI topics. Each helped advance our thinking about MI and its application in schools. Dr. Lori Newcomer con-tinues to inspire us with her amazing teacher consultation skills and her com-mitment to teachers and students.

We also would like to acknowledge the Center for Prevention and Early Intervention at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health for ongoing support in the development, adaptation, and evaluation of the various MI applications described in this book. The National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse provided ongoing funding for the center and some of the projects described in this book. We are grateful to Dr. Nick Ialongo, center director, for his ongoing support and encouragement.

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xiv acknowledgments

Dr. Catherine Bradshaw, the associate dean of research at the University of Virginia, has been a valued colleague who has supported our work and encouraged us to think bigger and better. Her recent adaptations of the CCU to various new applications are exciting and innovative. Dr. John Lochman has been incredibly gracious in allowing us to tinker with his Coping Power program as we tried to create an integrated model of support for families in schools.

We have been very fortunate to have had many amazing mentors over the years who have infl uenced many of the ideas we express in this book. Dr. Carolyn Webster-Stratton has inspired and encouraged us for years. Although she does not use the terminology of MI to describe her work or her exceptional clinical skills, her style and extraordinary gifts of connecting and sparking change in others are very much in line with MI. Dr. Tom Dishion has supported us over the years as we attempted to extend his brilliant efforts to apply MI with families. Drs. Randy Sprick and George Sugai have long inspired us with their incredible school consultation skills and the vast posi-tive infl uence they have had on schools in the United States. Of course, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the original work of Drs. William Miller and Stephen Rollnick, the developers of MI. All MI extensions are merely adaptations of their groundbreaking work.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge our parents and families, especially Wendy and Keith’s daughter, Kennedy, who has attended more professional conferences in her 6 years of life than many adult scholars.

Andy Frey would like to acknowledge his wife (Shannon), parents (Larry Frey and Maureen Frey), and children (Sam and Amelia) for their support and encouragement. He is also grateful for the mentorship he has received from Dr. Hill Walker. Without his support, this work would not have been possible. Additionally, Andy is thankful for Dr. Terri Moyers’s guidance and encourage-ment. He is also grateful for his many colleagues at the University of Louisville and University of Oregon who have been infl uential in helping to transport the MI approach to school settings. Finally, he is grateful for the support of the Jefferson County and Greater Clark County Public School Systems. The admin-istrators, teachers, and families he collaborated with to better understand how to use MI were outstanding. It has been an honor to work with them and learn from them. Andy’s work has been supported by an Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education grant that allowed him to develop the enhance-ments to the First Step to Success program and the Motivational Interviewing Navigation Guide described in this book.

Stephanie Shepard is grateful to all the children, parents, and staff at the Head Start programs in Rhode Island (RI) who participated in her research and helped develop and pilot some of the methods and strategies described in this book. In particular, those at East Bay Community Action Program, Children’s Friend and Service, and the Comprehensive Community Action Program of Cranston. Stephanie also acknowledges the outstanding team of research assis-tants and students at the Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Research Center, and is particularly grateful to colleagues and trainees who made substantive contribu-tions to the development and testing of the integration of family-, program-,

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acknowledgments xv

and classroom-level check-ups with the Incredible Years programs, including Drs. Laura Armstrong, Lisa Costello, Leandra Godoy, Megan Beers, and Rebecca Silver. Finally, Stephanie is especially appreciative of mentors who infl uenced this work and who have supported her professional development. She thanks Drs. Carolyn Webster-Stratton, Tom Dishion, Elizabeth Stormshak, Ron Seifer, Nancy Eisenberg, and the late John Reid for their guidance, inspiration, encour-agement, and generosity with their time and resources. The work that Stephanie describes in this book has been supported by a career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health and grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; the RI Department of Health; and the RI Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.

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I

Overview of Motivational Interviewing

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© Springer Publishing Company, LLC3

1

Background and Rationale

We all know from personal experience that adopting new behaviors and atti-tudes can be a complicated endeavor. Changing well-established personal behaviors, habits, and routines requires a great deal of commitment and per-sistence. Thus, it should come as no surprise to us to be met with pushback and resistance when we attempt to stimulate change in complex systems such as schools and families. These systems are composed of individuals with long-standing preferences and habits that have been reinforced, sometimes for years, by the context in which they occur. Expecting these behaviors to change simply because it makes sense to do so runs against the tide of behavioral patterns and usually only leads to frustration when the intended change never happens. Quite often, no amount of education, information exchange, or encouragement is enough to create enduring change in people.

Thus, many school professionals fi nd themselves in a predicament, tasked with improving student outcomes by encouraging adults in their lives to behave differently. Administrators, school psychologists and consultants, special edu-cators, teachers, instructional coaches, and behavior consultants encounter the challenge of trying to infl uence change at some point in the course of their work with others. If only it were enough to explain to a parent about research show-ing the benefi ts of being involved in education to produce an increase in his or her homework participation. If only it were as easy as telling a teacher about the importance of using high rates of specifi c praise in the classroom to alter their positive to negative ratio of interactions. On the other hand, if it were that easy, the challenges we encounter in schools would likely never have existed in the fi rst place.

On a personal level, we know that changing a behavior is not often as easy as simply wanting to do so.



4 i. overview of motivational interviewing

We actually know a lot about the types of environments that are healthy and that promote student learning and positive adjustment (see Biglan, Flay, Embry, & Sandler, 2012). The irony is that we have devoted most of our science to identifying the characteristics of nurturing environments and much less of it to fi guring out how to get people to actually create them. It is as though we have assumed that people will change because it is logical to do so. In this sense, our science has lagged behind common sense. On a personal level, we know that changing a behavior is not often as easy as simply wanting to do so.

Fortunately, a strand of research has surfaced in the last two decades focused on this critical aspect of change. From this research comes a new perspective on motivation, an understanding of common factors that undermine readiness to change, and an approach to help move people toward change. The approach, called motivational interviewing (MI), has been developed to address barriers to motivation, foster compliance and engagement with services, and increase the likelihood that positive change will occur. This book is about the application of MI in schools.

THE GOOD AND BAD NEWS

The good news is that if and when people want to change, we actually have a wide range of behavioral technologies to help them be successful.

Unfortunately, for much of the 20th century, psychologists excluded from study one of the most impor-tant precursors to change: moti-vation. That is, behavior change technologies too often begin with the assumption that people are ready,

willing, and able to change. The reality is that motivation to do anything fl uc-tuates over time. Most people are ambivalent about changing their behavior.

Consider these examples:

A school psychologist checks in with a teacher on the progress of a ●

behavior support plan in the classroom. The teacher responds, “I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to it. It’s the end of the school year, and we are in the midst of testing. Filling out these point sheets is not at the top of my list of things to do.”A special educator wants to contact the parents of a student in her class to ●

create a home–school communication system. A colleague who has worked with the parents in prior years tells her, “Good luck with those parents. They’ve never been involved. As far as I can tell, they just don’t care.”An administrator tries to meet with another parent to discuss ways the ●

school could support her child. Despite setting up appointments to meet, the parent fails to attend the scheduled appointments twice in a row.A teacher is frustrated by the lack of effort from several of her students. She ●

confronts them with the likely reality that they will be unable to achieve any

The good news is that if and when people want to change, we actually have a wide range of behavioral technologies to help them be successful.



1. background and rationale 5

of their aspirations without being successful in school. Her warnings fall on deaf ears and the students she was trying to reach continue to neglect their homework.

Each of these situations involves an element of motivation. From the perspec-tive of the school psychologist, special educator, teacher, and administrator, they have a plan they believe will work, if only the adult or student would imple-ment it. It’s as though they are at the mercy of happenstance and can do nothing but wait for the teacher, parent, or student to really want to change. In other words, often school professionals feel helpless to motivate others to actively engage in services.

A MODERN VIEW OF MOTIVATION

A modern view of motivation, however, fl ips these assumptions about how and why people change on their head. In the modern approach, motivation is not dichotomous (i.e., either people are motivated or they are not) but rather it is dynamic and evolving. At noon, a teacher may be very motivated to improve his classroom-management skills after a morning of referring four students to the offi ce for serious behavior violations. By the end of the day, that same teacher may be exhausted and thinking little about ways to improve the classroom environment. Similarly, a parent may be motivated to be involved in school matters after her child is suspended. Within a few days, though, her sense of energy toward changing the situation may be replaced by concerns at work or meeting the daily needs of her family.

In this conceptualization, motivation resides in an interpersonal and ecolog-ical context rather than simply dwelling inside the person. The world around us infl uences and shapes our desire to change. On some level, we all know this. We know that certain pictures or images can evoke motivational responses from us; some people put pictures of a beach on their mirror to motivate their diet or exercise behaviors, whereas others put prompts or verbal messages in their kitchen to spark their interest in eating healthfully. We also know the way we talk about things with others can infl uence how motivated we are to change. Think of a teenager whose parents regularly nag him about doing well in school, but who routinely does the opposite. The types of conversations we have with people who are considering change can have a strong infl uence over whether their interest in changing waxes or wanes. In the modern view of moti-vation, the more these conversations draw out of the person the reasons for wanting to change and the benefi ts of possible changes, the more likely it is that the motivation will persist. However, the more these conversations encourage the person to defend the status quo, essentially arguing against change, the less likely it is that change will occur.

Motivation resides in an interpersonal and ecological context rather than simply dwelling inside the person.




WHAT IS MI?

MI represents this modern view of motivation. MI attempts to help people resolve their ambivalence about behavior change by highlighting discrepan-

cies between their values and their behaviors. It is grounded in social psychology research and client-cen-tered counseling principles. A basic tenet of this approach is that people are much more likely to do things that they say they will do versus things they are told to do. The role

of the consultant is to ask questions that make it more likely that the teacher or parent will talk about change (change talk) rather than spending much time telling them what to do. Effective questions ask about problems with the status quo (“What makes you concerned about your classroom right now?”), advan-tages of changing (“How would your life be better if you reduced disruptive classroom behaviors?”), disadvantages of not changing (“If you don’t do any-thing, what might be some bad things that could happen?”), and intention to change (“How certain are you that you will follow through on this plan by next week?”). Conversely, arguing and telling the parent, student, or teacher the rea-sons they need to change generally has the opposite effect. A rule of thumb in this approach is if you hear yourself arguing for change, do something different. You want the parent, student, or teacher making that argument.

In a broader sense, MI approaches are also attentive to the well-established principles of effective brief interactions, denoted by the acronym FRAMES (Miller & Rollnick, 2002). These principles that can be useful in helping people become more motivated to change include the following: First, person-specifi c and individualized Feedback about their behavior can often be motivating to people. Daily-performance feedback toward a targeted goal is one example. For example, providing a teacher trying to increase his positive to negative ratio of interactions with information about the frequency of praise statements and repri-mands that he uses based on direct observations can inspire continued improve-ment or satisfaction with progress. Second, leaving Responsibility for change with each individual is also important (“It’s ultimately up to you whether you want to do anything about this problem.”). Third, giving Advice selectively and only with permission can help people initiate the change process, especially when it is delivered within the context of a collaborative relationship. Fourth, if individuals express an interest in changing a behavior, providing them with a Menu of options can make it more likely that he or she will remain motivated (“There are several ways that other teachers have been successful in reducing disruptions. Let me tell you about a couple and you let me know which one sounds best to you.”). Fifth, expressing Empathy throughout these discussions is essential to promoting their likelihood of moving forward. Sixth, support-ing people’s Self-effi cacy, their belief that they can make the intended changes if they choose to do so, is another element of effective consultation. Two ways to do this are to note their current successes in changing (“How did you make that happen?”) and to ask about times in the past that they have successfully

A basic tenet of this approach is that people are much more likely to do things that they say they will do versus things they are told to do.




managed challenging situations (“Tell me about the last time you had a disrup-tive class and how you were able to get control of it.”).

CHECK-UPS

Some specifi c consultation models based on MI have been developed in recent years for application in schools. These models are extensions of the classic “check-up” strategies that emerged in substance-use counseling in the 1990s (e.g., the “Drinker Check-Up”). Check-Ups are motivational enhancement approaches that employ all of the MI-related strategies to deliver personalized feedback about particular areas of functioning. Dishion and Kavanagh (2003) developed the Family Check-Up (FCU) to provide a platform for brief assess-ment and tailored feedback to foster parent motivation to access and participate in services. The original model was intended for use in school settings as part of a comprehensive school-wide model for working with families. More recently, Reinke and colleagues (2011) developed the Classroom Check-Up (CCU) as a brief motivational enhancement intervention for consulting with teachers about classroom behavior management skills. Check-Ups provide a method for using MI within an explicit framework for working with teachers, families, and youth in schools. Both the FCU and CCU involve two to three session meetings, eco-logical assessments, personalized feedback, and action planning based on the feedback. Each assumes that the foundation for motivating consultees to change is a collaborative relationship and attention is paid to the well-established fac-tors that promote motivation, including those emphasized in MI.

DOES IT WORK?

Aside from its intuitive appeal, the use of MI has blossomed during the past two decades in large part because of the vast evidence base that has been accumu-lated about it as a method for helping people change (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). The watershed moment occurred in the mid-1990s with the release of fi ndings from the largest therapy study ever conducted, Project MATCH. MI was one of the three treatments in the study. As MI included far fewer sessions than the other two treatments, the study authors expected participants who received it to fare worse, except for those with less severe problems. In fact, they found those who received MI did as well as those in the other treatments, regardless of problem severity. Due to MI’s brevity, researchers, clinicians, and policymak-ers latched onto it as an innovative method. Since that time, research on MI has mushroomed with over 200 randomized trials now supporting its effi cacy in a wide variety of settings (Miller & Rollnick, 2002, 2013). Moreover, MI has been extended to address a seemingly limitless array of problems in health care settings, the corrections system, and education. In one of its most novel appli-cations, Thevos (2000) found that MI could be used to improve the likelihood of water purifi cation practices in east African villages. The common thread of applications has been to any problem where compliance or adherence is an issue; in other words, virtually any situation that requires human change.




In education settings, several studies have now showed that MI-based inter-ventions improve outcomes for parents, teachers, and students (see Reinke, Herman, & Sprick, 2011, 2010; Stormshak & Dishion, 2002; Strait et al., 2012). Furthermore, because it can be used alone or as a tool for connecting parents, teachers, and students to other evidence-based interventions, MI is a value-added method. Simply increasing participation in high-quality services (such as teacher or parent training programs) by fostering motivation to do so is a valued outcome in itself. Finally, the use of MI as a strategy for promoting everyday conversations about change is supported by the wealth of research on the importance of the helping relationship. Over 1,500 studies conducted during the past half century have repeatedly confi rmed that the most important determinant of successful consultation or counseling interventions is the quality of the relationship between the consultant and the consultee (see Bergin & Garfi eld, 1994). It is one of the most consistent fi ndings in research. The effect of the relationship quality on outcomes dwarfs the effects of other factors, including the model or type of approach (e.g., behaviorism, cognitive, psychodynamic). As you will see, the foundation of MI is a collaborative, respectful relationship in line with these fi ndings.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK?

This book is intended to foster everyday conversations about change in schools. It is designed to provide practice guidelines for any school professional who attempts to build engagement in school-based supports and services. This includes any professional working on school-based support teams in which par-ent, student, or staff involvement is required for success. The goal is to provide a useful model for consultation that will lead to increased use of effective prac-tices in schools.

Additionally, we aim to describe ways to connect these skills and strate-gies to other established behavior support and parenting programs such as the Incredible Years Series, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, First Step to Success, and programs in the Safe and Civil Schools Series. These strategies also can be used to combine motivational principles with academic and instruc-tional programs.

Part I provides an overview of MI and related engagement strategies. Chapter 2 describes contextual strategies that promote willingness to attend meetings or engage in consultation discussions. As MI requires that people actually attend meetings or become willing to have conversations, Chapter 2 provides methods for successfully accessing consultees. Chapter 3 describes specifi c MI techniques that can be used across school contexts. We provide a summary of the evidence base underlying MI and then describe specifi c MI-related strategies. Additionally, this part provides details about the criti-cal elements of effective feedback and support planning that may lead to increased engagement.

Part II describes applications of MI for specifi c targeted participants. Separate chapters describe using MI with parents, teachers, and students. Additionally, we provide a detailed description of the FCU as an example of a structured MI-based model that integrates parent, teacher, and student perspectives.




Additionally, Chapter 8 in Part II describes a model for using MI to support the activities of school-based problem-solving teams.

Part III discusses other aspects of implementation and dissemination. We describe efforts to integrate MI with other evidence-based practices and pro-grams. We also describe methods for monitoring fi delity of implementation to ensure that the school staff implements MI strategies correctly.

This book is intended to produce fi ve primary outcomes: (a) describe research-based strategies for building teacher, parent, and student engagement in school-based services; (b) identify consultation skills related to MI, providing objective feedback, and using data to tailor interventions to the specifi c needs of parents, teachers, and students; (c) illustrate in explicit detail effective con-sultation models based in MI for supporting teachers, parents, and students; (d) identify methods for infusing MI into other school-based intervention mod-els; and (e) defi ne procedures for building the capacity to implement MI within a school or across an entire district.

FOR WHOM IS THIS BOOK WRITTEN?

This book is written for educational personnel (school psychologists, consul-tants, special educators, behavior specialists, teachers, and others) who con-sult with individuals within the school, where motivation and engagement are important. The book also has value for administrators and school-based teams who have the task of designing effective behavior support systems and resources for students in their building or district.

We intend the book to be useful for two levels of MI skill development. First, this book is intended to help any school professional have more effective everyday conversations about change. The principles of MI apply in every interaction in which changing behavior is of interest. Ignoring these principles or acting counter to them increases the prob-ability that school professionals will have unsatisfying conversations about change. However, attending to and adopting the principles of MI even in small ways is likely to positively shift the nature of these conversations. In this regard, any school professional can benefi t from reading and applying the spirit of MI along with some of the strategies that align with it. Throughout the text, we have included pullout examples, called Everyday Conversations About Change, to illustrate the use of MI principles in very brief encounters that occur during a typical school day.

Second, many school professionals will already have a solid foundation in basic listening skills and effective consultation. For these professionals, the book is intended to sharpen their consultation skills, allowing them to target areas for further professional development. Some of these school professionals may want to invest more time in becoming fully fl uent in an MI-consistent mode of consul-tation and to use it as a structured clinical technique. The detailed descriptions of the various Check-Up approaches provide a useful framework for applying

This book is intended to help any school professional have more effective everyday conversations about change.




a structured MI approach. Additionally, Chapter 11 describes further steps and additional resources in developing fl uency in MI as a clinical technique.

A CAVEAT

After learning of our work with MI, a colleague encouraged us to write a book about how to motivate anyone to do anything. Although this would be use-

ful (and likely a best seller!) it calls to mind a secretive, manipulative approach to world dominance. The methods described in this book are not a magical elixir nor are they intended to solve all problems. Rather, these

methods are best used as part of a broader consultation relationship.As we will repeat regularly throughout the book, MI strategies only work in

the context of a supportive relationship. The foundation of MI work is referred to as the “spirit of MI” (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). Part of this spirit involves trusting that the people who you consult with will make the best decisions for themselves. Becoming overly attached to a single-minded goal (e.g., getting a parent to attend school meetings) is counter to an MI approach and likely will undermine the relationship. Compassion is another critical aspect of the MI spirit, that is, an abiding concern about the welfare and interests of the person with whom you are consulting. This aspect of MI is what distinguishes it from self-interested socially manipulative practices such as those found in sales and advertising.

Aside from the specifi c techniques of MI, there are foundational qualities and skills that are prerequisites for effective consultation. As noted above, one fi nding repeatedly observed in the helping literature is that the strongest pre-dictor of whether consultation will be helpful is the quality of the relationship rather than specifi c methods and models. Not surprisingly, the attitudes, per-sonal qualities, and style of the consultant play a major role in whether helping alliances form. The same is true in virtually any successful consultation rela-tionship, be it counseling and supporting families, consulting with teachers, or guiding students. Thus, a key place to start with any consultation model is awareness of these relationship-building qualities.

We discuss how these qualities facilitate effective consultation in greater detail throughout the book. We conceptualize these factors in a hierarchical manner with some serving as the foundation for increasingly complex skills.

MI PLUS WHAT?

A fi nal important point is that although MI in itself is a great approach to help people move forward with plans to change, it may not be enough. For many people, this gentle push may evoke signifi cant behavior changes. Keep in mind, however, that many people will also need help in making the desired change. In other words, motivation and intention to change are only one part of the

MI strategies only work in the context of a supportive relationship.




equation, albeit a very important part. The other part involves the skills needed to make the change happen. A consultant may be effective in using MI to get a teacher to want to improve her instructional pacing, but the teacher may not know how to do it. Thus, another part of being an effective consultant is know-ing how to help people produce the changes they want to see. Understanding the theory and research behind how best to help people make changes once they have decided to do so is a necessity for a well-rounded consultant. The behavior technology knowledge base is comprehensive and beyond the scope of this book. However, there are many resources that can be helpful to a con-sultant and even to a parent or teacher if they prefer to work on developing the skills alone. These additional resources will be listed throughout the book for each topical area.


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